I'm using Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat in dual boot with Windows XP SP3 and am having issues while installing packages/programs in Ubuntu. Not that they don't install but parallel installation is not supported. By this i mean, I can't install updates while software center is installing. is there a way I can configure this?

4 Answers
4

You cannot install two program simultaneously in Ubuntu. If you tried this in the terminal you would have got the message that apt-get is in use by an other application and is locked. Infact if you were installing two application in the Ubuntu Software Center it would first finish the installation of the first before it starts installing the second application.

Technical Explanation

This is because Ubuntu is based on Debian and Debian package management is based on apt, which is based in turn on dpkg. dpkg uses a very simple lock-file semantic for protection of its databases. While dpkg is installing from one or more .deb packages, no other dpkg process can alter the database. Further, while one apt-get process is downloading packages, no other apt-get process can run except in download-only mode.

No. The package management system needs a global lock to keep the meta-data (list of installed packages etc.) consistent. Update-Manager, Software-Center, Synaptic, Aptitude -- all of them are frontends to the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) which, in turn, adds networking and repositories to the Debian Package Management Tool (dpkg).

Answer is no but what you can can try ,
Select all the software/packages you want through synaptics and then just hit install, this way you will not have to select again and again , it will install one after another internally , but anyway you can also update all through synaptics .. like all together.